Unhinged (Unhinged #1) Page 9

  “When I’m done,” I told him honestly, tossing the wrench onto the toolbox, letting it clank against the other tools. Grabbing the grease rag, I wiped my hands as I turned to look at Conrad.

  “Not good enough,” he barked.

  Holding my hands up in mock surrender, I smirked at him. “Have at it, old man. You wanna take a shot at making it work, do your worst. Or wait, better yet, why don’t you get your guys over here, see what they can do with it.”

  He’d tried that before. Not that the guys he had working for him weren’t good at what they did. They were. I was just better. It required a good ear to listen to a car, a steady hand to fine tune it, and I’d proven time and time again that no one could solve an issue better than I could.

  I didn’t bother to tell him that I was stalling on purpose. That wouldn’t have gone over very well.

  “Sebastian.”

  “Yes?” I feigned innocence. I was so fucking tired of this dance we were doing. Conrad could give two shits about when I had this prototype complete. I was pretty sure, after the spectacle he’d made at the party that someone was ready to throw a ton of fucking cash at him and he was just greedy.

  As far as I was concerned, they could wait. And so could he.

  “This is absurd.” Conrad moved closer. He didn’t get too close, probably worried he’d get grease on that pretty fucking shirt of his.

  “You’re tellin’ me,” I agreed. If he would stop breathing down my neck, we wouldn’t have to go through this every damn day.

  “You’ve got three days,” he finally said, surprising the shit out of me.

  I spun around to face him directly, trying to rein in my temper. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. Three days. I want that damn thing finished by Monday. If it means you work through the weekend, so be it.”

  I could hear my teeth grinding together, feel the muscle in my jaw flexing.

  “And if I don’t agree?”

  Conrad took a deep breath. “Then we’ll have to have a discussion regarding our little arrangement.”

  “Good idea,” I taunted as I took a step closer. He took one step back. “Why don’t we do that, Dad? Why don’t we just sit down and hash it out? Maybe call a press conference. I think the media would be thrilled to learn more about the man behind the fake fucking smiles and the fancy ass suits.”

  “Goddammit, Sebastian!” Conrad yelled, storming across the room and stopping abruptly, his back to me. “Why the fuck do you have to keep doing this? I’ve given you everything you could possibly want. Every goddamn thing and this is the thanks I get?”

  I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” I said facetiously when Conrad spun around. “I forgot about all the things you gave me. I was too busy remembering,” I walked toward him, my voice lowering, “all the shit you took away from me.”

  Conrad glared, but he remained silent.

  We were through here. There was nothing left to say. This was how it usually ended between us. A stalemate. He thought he could threaten me, but what he didn’t realize was that I wasn’t some dumbass fourteen-year-old kid anymore. I’d long outgrown my initial fear of being accepted by him. I didn’t want his approval. I didn’t need it.

  “I’ve got to go back to the office,” Conrad stated, as though that was the reason for the end of our conversation.

  “Oh, one more thing.” I waited until he turned to face me again. He cocked an eyebrow in question. “How’s Payton?”

  With that, Conrad spun on his expensive fucking heel and waltzed right out the door, leaving me standing there. All alone.

  Just as I always was.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sebastian

  I ended up having dinner out that night, choosing not to face my father’s wrath. I’d pushed him too far and I didn’t want to deal with the repercussions. Not to mention, I didn’t want to put Aaliyah through that either.

  That and my curiosity was going to get the best of me if I had to listen to Conrad talk about Payton over dinner one more time. He would do it too, just to irritate me.

  One of these days, I was going to lose my shit and it wasn’t going to matter who ended up as collateral damage. Where Payton was concerned, I was a ticking time bomb. It was as though I needed my next fix. I was a junkie, an addict. I wanted a woman I knew very little about and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t understand what the fuck it was about her that had me so obsessed.

  I was slowly going crazy.

  I wanted to know more about her. No, scratch that, I wanted to know everything about her. Where was she from? How old was she? What did she look like naked?

  I was definitely interested in the last part.

  So, instead of risking a slip of the tongue in front of my father, I was sitting at a sports bar, watching hockey and drinking beer with my two closest friends, Leif Connelly and Toby Brindle.

  “Man, are you picturing some chick naked?” Leif questioned, lifting his beer bottle in my direction.

  “I was thinkin’ the same thing,” Toby added in that slow, southern drawl that drew women like a magnet.

  “Shut up, assholes,” I mumbled, hating how well they knew me.

  Okay, so yes, I was picturing Payton naked. Didn’t mean I had to share my thoughts with anyone, let alone the two people who would harass me until I wanted to punch them in the face simultaneously.

  “Who is she?” Leif asked.

  “No one,” I barked.

  “Right. ’Cause ‘no one’ makes you drool when you picture her naked,” Toby inserted, smiling around the lip of his beer bottle.

  “Did I mention you could… fuck off,” I bit out, unable to keep from smiling.

  It wasn’t a secret that I didn’t spend my time with many women. Oh, there’d been a few, sure. After all, I wasn’t a saint. But nothing serious.

  Not that I didn’t find women fascinating, nor was it due to the fact that I didn’t have my fair share of female attention. But I’d learned early on, thanks to who my family was, that women tended to see dollar signs when they found out where I lived. I didn’t make a habit of bringing women to the estate, but there had been a handful. Needless to say, the caliber of female that I usually attracted were more interested in what they could get from me rather than what they could do with me. If that wasn’t a turnoff, I don’t know what was.

  “So now you’ve got imaginary girlfriends? What the hell is this world coming to?” Leif razzed good-naturedly.

  “Who the hell are you tryin’ to kid?” Toby snorted. “He’s always had imaginary girlfriends.”

  I knew Leif and Toby would give me a hard time. They always did. Didn’t matter that Leif usually got the waterfall of women that I left in my wake or that Toby had his hands full on nearly a nightly basis. We were usually together, which meant when one girl arrived, there were normally two more not far behind. Sometimes more than that. Chicks loved Leif and Toby, which, according to them, were their reasons behind their playboy statuses.

  I’d known Leif since I was fourteen, since my first day in a new school when I was pissed off and hated the world. Leif had been my saving grace, I guess you could say. He hadn’t taken any of my shit when I wanted to do nothing more than fight with anyone who crossed my path. His ability to ignore my bullshit was the main reason we’d become friends. That and he was as much of an adrenaline junkie as I was. The only point of contention between the two of us was that he had the hots for my sister, something I wasn’t particularly fond of. So far, I’d managed to keep the two of them apart, although it was getting harder and harder these days.

  But I didn’t want to think about Leif and Aaliyah. Not now. Not ever.

  As for Toby, we met our freshman year of high school. I’d smoked him in a street race, but rather than threaten to kick my ass like a lot of assholes did, Toby shook my hand. We’d been friends ever since.

  “She’s not imaginary,” I grumbled, sipping my beer. I rested my forearms on the table and picked at the label on my bottle,
trying to keep my head down.

  Leif twisted in his chair to face me directly. “So there is a girl?”

  “Of course, there’s a girl,” Toby declared, looking not at all shocked.

  “No,” I lied. “Ain’t no damn girl.” No reason to get Leif all worked up. He was always giving me shit about dating. I tended not to do it by design.

  “So, I saw your father on TV again today.” Leif looked at me and then glancing over at Toby, mischief gleaming in his dark brown eyes.

  I leaned back in my chair, tipping it onto two legs. While I watched Leif and Toby, I tilted my beer bottle to my lips, contemplating whether or not I wanted to know where this was going. Instead of answering, I cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “I have to rescind my original statement about Conrad’s new assistant. She’s not just hot. She’s fucking hot.”

  Toby laughed. “And the difference is…?”

  Dropping my chair back onto all four legs, I stared at Leif. Okay, he’d effectively gotten my attention. I purposely ignored Toby.

  “Let’s just say… I’d do her.”

  I growled. It wasn’t something I could have controlled. I didn’t even realize the deep rumble had come from me until Leif’s eyes widened.

  “Chill, man. I’m kidding. But she is hot,” Leif tacked on, smirking as he sipped his beer.

  “Good for her.” My tone was snide, and I realized it was too late to pretend I wasn’t interested in Conrad’s new assistant. If anyone saw through me, it was Leif.

  “Just think, if you do her, you’ll piss your father off for good,” Toby blurted, evidently oblivious to the tension radiating from me.

  I scowled at Toby, my anger nearly getting the best of me. As it was, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Payton for a fucking week, but the idea of using her to piss off my old man didn’t sit well with me. Not at all.

  Leif laughed, tipping his own beer bottle to his lips as he studied me. “He’s kidding, man.”

  The hell he was. “Comedy isn’t your strong suit,” I snapped, downing what was left of my beer.

  When Toby didn’t say anything more, I squeezed my beer bottle between my hands, turning my attention to Leif. He knew I wanted to know what the fuck he was talking about. Not just about Payton, but the press conference that clearly went on without me knowing. Again.

  So I waited none too patiently.

  “Your father was making a statement about a donation to the children’s hospital. She was there with him. Not that he introduced her, but the media made a big deal out of it.”

  A donation. Right.

  As for the media making a big deal out of Conrad’s new assistant, I could understand why. I had the pleasure of meeting her, I knew what the draw was. But they made a big deal about every damn thing when it came to my father. Especially the local news. My father did a lot for the Austin area, I’d give him that. He made generous donations to various charities and he’d even sponsored a new children’s hospital. All in the name of charity.

  Right.

  Because Conrad Trovato was so fucking charitable.

  But I doubted that was the reason the media had grabbed the story. They were always looking to dig up dirt on my father. One of these days, they were going to dig just deep enough and Conrad’s world was going to crumble around him.

  I hoped I was there to see it.

  “Have you met her yet?” Toby asked.

  “Who?” I pretended not to know what they were talking about.

  Thankfully our waitress arrived before either of them could continue. She delivered the wings Leif had ordered, then slid a plate of nachos in front of Toby, and I asked for another beer. After Leif had hit on her, she walked off, hopefully remembering my beer.

  “I take that as a no,” Leif said, staring at me.

  “No,” I lied.

  I knew better than to tell them that yes, I’d met her. That I’d led her to believe that I was a mechanic who worked for Conrad. Or that I’d almost kissed her. They didn’t need to know that.

  Payton had no idea who I really was and probably never would. Just because she worked for my father, the chances of ever actually seeing her again were slim to none. Especially when it seemed Conrad was planning to stand in my way.

  Not wanting to dwell on that depressing thought, I turned my attention back to the hockey game, ignoring that knowing smirk on Leif’s face and the way Toby chuckled under his breath.

  Assholes.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Payton

  “Why do you insist on dragging me here every Thursday night?” I questioned Chloe as she, quite literally, dragged me toward the door of Instant Replay, the downtown Austin sports bar that she had turned into our Thursday night hangout.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? There are hot guys who come here on Thursday night.”

  “I’m sure they come here every night. Hot guys, that is,” I argued as I pretended to resist.

  In truth, I welcomed a night of beer and hockey. After the week that I’d had, I was ready for a cold one. Or three.

  Mr. Trovato had been in rare form ever since I walked through the door on Monday morning. Although I had arrived at five a.m., I found him already in his office, a cup of coffee on his desk. I think he had expected me to apologize for not being able to read his mind and show up an hour earlier than I normally did. A little rattled, I had gone on with my day, business as usual. More than once I had caught him staring at me, but it wasn’t one of those creepy old guy stares. It was more like he was trying to figure me out.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, Conrad had taken to asking me questions. Not too personal, but definitely more so than I expected. When did I graduate? Did I enjoy school? Did my parents live close by? Did I see them often? Was I dating the guy I came to the party with? Was it serious?

  Those were the questions he’d plied me with throughout the week and then some. It wasn’t that I minded talking to him, but I definitely noticed a change in his demeanor. He was treating me differently. I had wondered if it had something to do with Sebastian, although, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how. I just remembered the look on Mr. Trovato’s face when I left his party with Aaron in tow. I hadn’t imagined it, I knew that much.

  It wasn’t like I had seen Sebastian again since then. I hadn’t had any reason to go to the Trovato estate and though I had dreamed about him showing up at the office, I didn’t see any reason for him to do that either.

  Aaron had done his best to keep me preoccupied through the week, showing up at the apartment with dinner each night, sometimes with Mark. He even stayed long enough to watch TV with Chloe and me. I knew that Chloe was curious, but I had managed to blow her off, giving her just enough details to curb her curiosity without revealing what had really happened.

  Aaron, bless him, hadn’t blabbed either.

  Since the day after the party, we hadn’t talked about Sebastian. No one. Not me. Not Aaron. Not Chloe. I think Aaron was worried about me, but I could have assured him that he had no reason to. I’d moved on. I don’t know what had transpired between the two of us out on the veranda that night, but it was over and done. Thinking about Sebastian wasn’t doing me any good.

  I shook off the thought of him as I reached for the restaurant’s front door when Chloe held it open.

  Chloe and I walked inside the sports bar and one of the waitresses immediately greeted us by name, reaching for two menus before walking us to a table in the far corner. I glanced around as I walked, realizing the place was busier than usual. My gaze traveled up to one of the televisions on the wall as I walked.

  Ahh… That explained it.

  The Dallas Stars were playing the Nashville Predators. Always a good game to watch. I, myself, was a huge hockey fan, something I’d taken to because of my father. When I was younger, we always went to games, mostly to Dallas to see the Stars play because my dad was a diehard fan.

  I bumped into Chloe when she stopped, my attention still on the t
elevision. Smiling and shrugging, I then waited for her to pick a seat — the woman was anal when it came to which chair she would take at the table. Just one of her many quirks. This time it only took her five seconds to figure it out, which was probably a record for her. I quickly hung my purse on the chair between us, choosing to sit across from her. I retrieved my cell phone before sitting down and facing my friend. Chloe was already perusing the menu, spouting off things that sounded good to her.

  No way could I eat that and not gain ten pounds, but my friend, she could eat anything and not gain an ounce. Have I mentioned that I hated her for that?

  “What do you think?”

  “About?”

  “Food, Payton. Food. Why do you think we came here?” Chloe asked, her eyes boring holes into me.

  “I thought it was for the hot guys.” I pretended to be confused.

  “Well, there is that.” Her gaze migrated slowly around the room.

  I didn’t bother to look around. I knew what I’d see. The place was a hangout for the younger crowd. Being that Austin was a college town, you didn’t have to walk very far before you bumped into at least one college student. Or ten.

  The waitress returned with a huge smile on her face. Chloe rattled off her order in rapid succession and I waited my turn. When she was finally finished, I smiled up at the waitress and said, “I’ll have a Corona Light with lime and I’ll pick off her plate.”

  Chloe grumbled from across the table.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for half.”

  “I’m not worried about that,” Chloe said softly. “I’m worried about you eating half my food. I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving.”

  Chloe grinned and I knew what she was about to ask before the words even tumbled out of her mouth. The gleam in her green eyes told me everything.

  “When are you gonna tell me more about that mechanic you met last week? Was he at the party?”